Costa del Sol and landscaping

My many hours of research has told me the Spanish immigrants wanted to farm in California because they were told the weather was similar to their own in Spain.  They were agricultural jornaleros mostly (farmers).  Despite the hardships and near starvation, they survived and learned self-sustaining gardening and bartering for the food they couldn't grow themselves.  And they loved flowers and flowering trees.

While looking at images of various villages on the internet where many Spaniards came from it dawned on me that the landscapes in the south part of Spain included Palm Trees and  Bougainvillea and a number of magnificently glorious other types of scented flowering shrubs.  But I hadn't realized they also grow Prickly Pear Cactus!  

Here in Arizona, it is everywhere and I especially like the rose/pink/lavender tinted Prickly Pear.  Arizonans make jelly out of this cactus among other things, all pretty amazing.  Now, to add to my genealogy research --- as a gardening addict, I will take note and photograph all the amazing flora and fauna of Spain.  

It reminded me of another old memory shared with my abuelita many years ago...

In her back yard stood an apricot tree, tall and green. 
It is more than an apricot tree she told me as she pulled an apricot off a leafy branch and pulled it apart with her fingernail.  "Mire esto!" (Look at this!) 

"Este es un almendra," she whispered as if she was telling me a secret.  Deep within the apricot seed sat a tiny almond!  She'd cultivated the amazing tree by planting each tree as one, and there grew a hybrid almond/apricot tree.  I'd forgotten about that until the landscape photos piqued my mind back to then...  It seemed so natural to her, this love of gardening and I am so thankful she has passed it on to many of her children and grandchildren. 

I am very anxious to have a look around Fuentesauco to see what the village is filled with now, 100 years after she left.  Soon... 5 days